The present invention relates to a device for supporting a strip in the wound or spooled condition, of the type constituting two half-hubs each bearing at least one flange made by molding with the half-hub, these half-hubs being assembled together to form a spool.
It relates more particularly to a device for supporting a transparent film strip present in the form of alignment of panels disposed side by side and connected to each other by a connection with a rupture starter, each panel being adapted to cover a pre-printed plastic card so as to protect it, this panel being held secured to the card by hot pressing. Until now, this type of strip is wound on a simple hub such that an offset of the edges of the strip cannot be prevented during transport or handling of the hub loaded with the strip. This offset ultimately generates imperfect covering of the card.
To solve this problem, it has been decided to use a spool whose flanges guide the edges of the strip and prevent offset of said edges. However, the strips exist in at least two widths. The design of a device for supporting the strip in the form of a monobloc assembly thus requires providing two stocks of spools.
There are moreover known, as shown in particular in U.S. Pat. No. 6,130,699, spools of which one of the flanges is axially movable along a hub to adapt to different lengths of strip. Such a design requires for each spool a precise adjustment of the flange and immobilization generally by screwing the flange on said hub. These different operations require long assembly time for the spool.
An object of the present invention is thus to overcome the mentioned drawbacks by providing a support device for a strip whose design permits its rapid adaptation to at least two widths of strip.
To this end, the invention has for its object a device for supporting a strip in the wound or spooled condition, of the type constituted by two half-hubs each comprising at least one flange made by molding with the half-hub, these half-hubs being assembleable together to form a spool, characterized in that at least one of the half-hubs, so called reversible, has a flange off center in the direction of the length of the half-hub and is shaped to connect to the other half-hub by one or the other of its ends as a function of the desired spacing between the flanges.